I recently acquired a bunch of Russian coins that I’m suspicious of, I was hoping some of the experts here could chime in. 1740 25.59g
The metal looks suspicious, as well as the surfaces, but perhaps others who are more experienced with these coins will chime in. Where did these coins come from?
For comparison, I just took a photo of an Ivan III ruble I have, 1741 CNB, St. Petersburg Mint, Dav-1676. Ex. Irving Goodman Collection. Superior Auction, February 1991, lot 243 26.03 grams
Buying a dealer's old stock from his wife. Unsure where he acquired them but it would have been probably 10 years ago or earlier. Probably different sources. I have some others as well that I did not post, as well as 3 that were notated as possibly contemporary counterfeits, so I do think if he thought they were suspicious he would have marked them like the others. From what I understand he sold all sorts of coins, I don't know that he was an expert of Russian stuff (I am certainly not). If they are counterfeit they all seem different enough that they were not produced by the same counterfeiter. I've handled obvious Chinese eBay fakes that usually have a distinct look, I don't get that from most of these.
Looks legit to me (at least from pictures). However, most of them looks to be ex-jewlery, mounts have been removed.
I did notice the Mount removal on many of them, which was partly getting my hopes up for them being real. I would much rather have a bunch of details grade authentic coins on my hands than counterfeits. I plan on sending them to TPG probably ANACS just to get authenticated. Thank you for your input!
The color of the coins is probably due to lighting. That would explain the yellowish tint. Generally the edge designs seem authentic. They have a degree of crudeness that would preclude, I think, any modern copies. The first coin has a definite lamination on the reverse. Ditto for the second coin, obverse. The third coin seems to have some solder at around 12 o'clock and flan flaws on the reverse. The Peter II ruble has some crudeness, but that's not unusual. The obverse actually looks quite nice. The two Elizabeth rubles, 1749 and 1745 look okay, now that I've had time to take a closer look today. You might consider NGC for the TPG service. ANACS doesn't have the greatest reputation around.
Thank you! I'm aware of ANACS reputation and where they stand in terms of PCGS/NGC, but I've had good results with them. I also feel like their reputation stems from where their grade lands in comparison to PCGS/NGC, not their ability to authenticate/attribute. I'll get results from them twice as fast as NGC based on my own experience.
It looks like many are ex-jewellery. Nothing wrong if you bought them at a bargain / reasonable price. However I do not believe all are genuine.
